Thursday, August 19, 2010

Blizzard is adding two new aspects to the game: a caravan that follows you around through all of the areas, and an artisan system that provides NPCs who can craft and enchant things for you. Basically, it's a load of groupies with mad skills. There will be three different artisans available: blacksmith, mystic, and jeweler, and they'll help you create more badass gear, or tweak what you already have.

If you thought Diablo was a loot whore game at heart before, wait until you hear about this. Read on for more details, and we'll be back with some more highlights soon, including screenshots and a video.

What is the caravan?

The caravan is a persistent group that follows the heroes across Sanctuary, providing a centralized hub for players to find questgivers, crafters and other important NPCs. As your character moves through the world so too will your loyal band, setting up in specific locations to remain close by should you need them.

Who are the artisans?

In order to access the professions in Diablo III, you'll need gain the loyalty of various artisans through your travels in Sanctuary. The blacksmith, mystic and jeweler each provide unique service over the course of the game.

What do the artisans offer?

Skilling up your artisans will unlock unique recipes, granting your character access to benefits that may not be found anywhere else in the world. The blacksmith crafts weapons and armor, and can add sockets to some items. The mystic creates scrolls, potions, magical weapons, spell runes, charms, and can also enchant items. The jeweler crafts gems, amulets, and rings. The jeweler can also remove gems from items and can combine gems to improve their quality.

How do I find the artisans?

Finding the artisans will be part of the main quest. Each artisan has been fleshed out to include their own story and quest line.

How do I use the artisans?

You'll collect loot as a reward for slaughtering the forces of the Burning Hells. Unwanted items can be salvaged in your inventory, converting these goods into raw crafting materials. High level items are salvaged into high level materials. You’ll then take those raw materials and hand them over to the artisans, putting them to work crafting or enchanting for you. Upon returning to the caravan after a lengthy foray, you foray, you may find that the artisans have been hard at work playing their trade for youe benefit.

How do I salvage my items?

Players will find an item while progressing through the main quest that will allow them to convert unwanted gear into crafting materials from the inventory. This item will not take up any inventory space. This should be a more satisfying option for offloading unwanted loot than the alternative -- dropping things on the ground or making frequent trips to a vendor.

(Editor's note: this item, while cube-shaped, is sadly not the Horadric Cube from Diablo's past. According to Jay Wilson, it's meant to be an homage of sorts to that cube, but it isn't the same cube.)

Why are you including crafting professions in an action game?

Professions add depth to the item collection that drives the action of Diablo III. We want to provide players with an alternative way to acquire gear, potions, and other randomly found items. We also want to provide additional forms of customization for players -- adding jewels, enchants or sockets to existing gear allows players further characters. Many rare crafting recipes and materials only found as world drops, enhancing the item acquisition process by increasing the diversity of items dropped by monsters.

Walk for the same amount of time at the same intensity day in and day out and your body will get as bored with your workout as you do. Throw in some variety with interval training, which involves changing the intensity of your workout throughout your exercise session. Every 5 minutes of your walk, jog for 1 minute. Every 5 minutes of your bike ride, shift into a higher gear and pedal hard for a minute. If you swim, speed up every other length. You'll burn more calories in the same amount of time.

2. Fidget.

People who drum their fingers or bounce their knees burn at least 500 calories a day. That adds up to losing 1 lb a week.

3. Keep a small squeeze ball with you and grip and squeeze it frequently during the day.

It's one of the few exercises you can do at any time. You'll build up the muscles in your hands – and muscle, wherever it is, burns a lot of calories.

4. Don't starve yourself.

Cutting out too many calories can backfire in more ways than one. Try to subsist on morsels and your metabolism will slow down so much that you'll not only stop losing weight, but you'll be lucky if you can peel yourself off the couch.

5. Put five rubber bands around your wrist every morning.

That's how many 16-ounce bottles of water you should drink during the day to rev up your metabolism, helping to burn more calories. At least, that's what German researchers found when they got 14 participants to drink about 500 ml of water. The volunteers' metabolic rate – or how quickly they burned calories – jumped a third within 10 minutes of drinking the water and remained high for another 30 or 40 minutes. The researchers estimated that, over a year, increasing your water consumption by 1.5 litres a day would burn an extra 17,400 calories, or about 2.25 kg (5 lb) worth. Since much of the increased metabolic rate is due to the body's efforts to heat the liquid, make sure the water you're drinking is icy cold.

6. Turn up the heat with hot peppers.

Some studies show that very spicy foods can temporarily increase your metabolism. Specialist grocers often stock many different kinds of peppers. Buy one type a week and add some to various meals. Spice up your scrambled eggs with minced jalapeño, add a little fire to beef stew with half a Scotch bonnet pepper.

7. Exercise outside.

Maybe it's the fresh air, maybe it's the sunshine, but something about exercising out in the open makes you walk or run faster than doing the same exercise in the gym.

8. Eat five small meals throughout the day instead of three large meals.

You might think you should eat less often if you want to lose weight, but that's just not the case. By eating every few hours, you keep your metabolism fired up and ensure it doesn't slow down between meals in order to hang on to calories. A "meal" can be as small as a cup of soup.

9. Sip a couple of cups of coffee throughout the day.

Studies find that the caffeine in coffee increases the rate at which your body burns calories. This does not mean, however, that you should order a fancy calorie-packed frappuccino. And skip the espresso if it makes you toss and turn at night.

10. Don't worry if you've been yo-yo dieting.

There's a myth that if you've spent your life losing and gaining the same 10 to 20 lb, your metabolism gets out of kilter and ends up slowing right down. Don't believe it. When researchers reviewed 43 studies on the topic, they found no difference in the metabolic rates of yo-yo dieters compared to those of everyone else.

11. Walk with intent – and intensity.

Burn more calories in the same amount of time with these strategies:1. Swing your arms when you walk. You'll burn 5 to 10 per cent more calories.2. Wear a weighted vest – another great way to burn calories. But leave the hand and ankle weights at home. They throw you off balance and could result in injury.3. Walk on grass, sand or a gravel path instead of the road. It takes more muscle power to glide smoothly over these uneven surfaces (especially sand) than over asphalt.4. Use walking poles. A U.S. study found that you get a much more intense workout than you would without the poles.5. Walk along the shore of a river or lake with your ankles in the water. The resistance burns more calories and gives your muscles an added workout.

12. Increase the protein in your diet.

There is some evidence that if you increase your protein intake to the upper end of the recommended range (roughly 20 per cent of overall calories), the amount of energy you expend at rest will remain the same even while you're losing weight. Normally, as you lose weight, your body adjusts and you burn fewer calories at rest.

The businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The businessman complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while. The businessman then asked why he didn't stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The businessman then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos; I have a full and busy life, señor."

The businessman scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor and eventually open your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City where you would run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But señor, how long will this all take?" To which the businessman replied, "15-20 years." "But what then, señor?" The businessman laughed and said, "That's the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions." "Millions, señor? Then what?" The businessman said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos." The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, "Isn't that what I'm doing right now?" -Author Unknown

Sometime, people will ask me...working with Government can get rich or not? Why don't you quit the Government job and come out to do own business?

Well, I don't have high ambition to get rich or what...I just want to be just like the fisherman...

p/s: but the "toys" i want to get is cant be granted by the paid i getting form the Government job, that is the sad thing...hahaha

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Bottled water is becoming increasingly controversial. A lot of people have questioned the environmental impacts of shipping water around in plastic packages, when most of us already have access to good-quality tap water, and some studies have found that what we're buying at the corner store isn't really any cleaner.